U.N. calls Myanmar military’s attack of Rohingya ‘genocide’

It’s been an important few days for the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Aug. 25 marked the first anniversary of the Myanmar military’s crackdown on the Rohingya — the killing of thousands, destruction of villages, mass rapes of women and children, and the exodus of nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.  Rallies world-wide…

Why the Rohingya crisis is a genocide

Aug. 25 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the Myanmar (also known as Burma) military’s “clearance operations” against the Rohingya population in Rakhine State.  While many experts, international organizations operating on the ground, and states have categorized the atrocities that followed as genocide, others have been hesitant to use the term, including the…

The Trump Administration’s support for religious freedom: Too good to be true?

When news of the Trump administration’s new Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response Program was announced in late July by Vice President Pence, it sounded good on its face.  Pence spoke of the program during the State Department’s inaugural “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom,” an event intended to “focus on concrete outcomes that reaffirm international commitments…

Congo’s democracy remains in the balance

by Susan Freudenheim, executive director, and Ann Strimov Durbin, director of advocacy and grantmaking Tear gas fired into maternity wards. Pro-democracy protesters arrested, tortured, wounded, some even killed. Children attacked with machetes. Villages reduced to ash. These scenes were witnessed in recent days by the Jewish World Watch (JWW) field representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).…